They chanted "shoot the puck." They booed the team off the ice after the second period. And eventually, the fans got sick of tired of what they were seeing and simply left.
No, this wasn't a replay of the Toronto Maple Leafs' Game 7 collapse against the Florida Panthers. But from over here, the Carolina Hurricanes' 5-0 loss in Game 2 against the Panthers sure looked like it.
And they say that Carolina isn't a hockey market.
Following a 5-2 loss in Game 1, the Hurricanes were shutout in Game 2 on Thursday in a loss that captain Jordan Staal described as an "ass whooping all the way through the lineup."
"I didn't know what I was watching," coach Rod Brind'Amour told reporters.
Down 0-2 in the best-of-seven series, the Hurricanes are now two more losses away from being swept for the fourth straight time in the conference final. It's not quite the same as Toronto's run of futility, in which the team has managed to win two playoff rounds in nine years. But try telling that to Carolina fans, who are now acting as though they have gone since 1967 without a championship.
That's not necessarily a bad thing.
It shows they care. More importantly, it shows they are fed up. But if you think fans are restless, then you can bet ownership is also running out of patience.
'It Was An Ass Whooping': Rod Brind'Amour, Jordan Staal, Taylor Hall, Andrei Svechnikov On Game 2 Loss
The Carolina Hurricanes have found themselves in familiar spot, a 2-0 series hole after <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/carolina-hurricanes/latest-news/the-carolina-hurricanes-should-be-embarrassed" target="_blank">dropping a second straight game</a> at home to the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference final.
That's why former GM Don Waddell resigned from his role last summer. It's also why incoming GM Eric Tulsky team swung for the proverbial fences and acquired Mikko Rantanen in a trade from the Colorado Avalanche — a trade, mind you, that quickly blew up in the Hurricanes' faces when Rantanen essentially forced a second trade to Dallas for Logan Stankoven.
The narrative around why Rantanen wanted to go to Dallas was apparently because of their Finnish-heavy roster. But maybe the real reason had to do with the coach.
After all, Carolina also has Finnish players on their roster. They also have Rod Brind'Amour, whose defense-first philosophy could be scaring away offensive players and preventing the team from taking the next step.
This year, it was Martin Necas and Rantanen who didn't want to re-sign. Last year, it was Jake Guentzel.
That's three star players gone from a team that has made the playoffs for seven straight years. With that track record, good luck convincing pending UFAs such as Mitch Marner, Brock Boeser or Nikolaj Ehlers to sign in Carolina this summer.
For some players, like Logan Stankoven and Taylor Hall, Brind'Amour is the kind of coach you would willingly run through a brick wall for. But for others, his defense-first system can be stifling.
Just ask Rantanen, who had two goals and six points in 13 games before getting moved to Dallas, where he has scored a combined 14 goals and 38 points in 33 regular season and playoff games.
Carolina did not have a top-30 scorer this season. Instead, they scored by committee, with 10 players scoring at least 10 goals and six of their defensemen contributing five or more goals. That's a recipe for regular-season success.
This is Brind'Amour's seventh season as the head coach of the Hurricanes and his 14th year behind the bench. If you include his playing days, he's been with the organization for 24 years. That's a long time. Maybe too long.
Brind'Amour deserves credit for bringing consistency and culture to an organization that had gone nine years without a playoff appearance. Not many teams go to the conference final three times in a six-year span. But how many of those teams fail to win a single game when they reach that point?
After back-to-back losses to Florida, it's looking like that streak will continue.
"Sometimes it's easier to recover from a game like that because there's nothing good out of it," Brind'Amour told reporters. "If you're close, a play here or there makes a difference. There was nothing good from this game for us. We're going to have to learn, but everybody has to be."
'It Was An Ass Whooping': Rod Brind'Amour, Jordan Staal, Taylor Hall, Andrei Svechnikov On Game 2 Loss
The Carolina Hurricanes have found themselves in familiar spot, a 2-0 series hole after <a href="https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/carolina-hurricanes/latest-news/the-carolina-hurricanes-should-be-embarrassed" target="_blank">dropping a second straight game</a> at home to the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference final.
What can Carolina learn from playing Florida? Well, a lot.
Brind'Amour's system was fine when the team lacked a top-10 player and needed to get by with playing a structured style that relied more on preventing goals — than scoring them. But if Carolina is going to take the next step and contend for a championship, then the Hurricanes need difference-makers.
They need a superstar. And they need a coach who is equipped to handle a superstar.